Agartala, March 19 (NationPress) A multi-faceted political battle is anticipated in the upcoming April 9 by-election for the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency, situated in Tripura's North Tripura district, as key political parties ramp up their preparations.

Following announcements from the CPI-M-led Left Front, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Congress regarding their candidates for this significant bypoll, it is expected that independent candidates and smaller local parties will also join the contest, heightening the competitive atmosphere in the Dharmanagar Assembly seat.

Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal shared that the party's President Mallikarjun Kharge has sanctioned the nomination of Chayan Bhattacharjee as the party's representative for the forthcoming by-election.

In the previous state Assembly elections of 2023, the Left Front collaborated with the Congress in a seat-sharing pact to jointly challenge the BJP in Tripura.

Chayan Bhattacharjee represented the Congress in the Dharmanagar seat during those elections but narrowly lost to BJP's Biswa Bandhu Sen by just 956 votes.

For this forthcoming bypoll, however, both the Left Front and the Congress have opted to contest independently.

The CPI-M-led Left Front has nominated former MLA Amitabha Datta, who submitted his nomination papers on Thursday after leading a large rally in Dharmanagar, which is Tripura's second most vital commercial center after Agartala.

On the same day, the BJP also revealed its candidate.

BJP General Secretary Arun Singh announced that Jahar Chakraborti will run for the Dharmanagar Assembly seat.

Singh mentioned that the BJP's Central Election Committee finalized candidates for by-elections across four states—Tripura, Nagaland, Goa, and Karnataka—during a meeting chaired by party President Nitin Nabin on Wednesday.

This meeting took place at the party headquarters in New Delhi, attended by notable figures including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Home Minister Amit Shah.

Jahar Chakraborti, 59, currently serves as the BJP's North Tripura district Vice-President and is contesting for the Dharmanagar seat for the second time. In 2013, he, a dedicated Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) member, had also contested this seat but lost to the Congress's Biswa Bandhu Sen.

Chakraborti's wife, Barnali Goswami, previously held the position of Chairperson for the Tripura State Commission for Women. Following the announcement of his candidacy, BJP supporters, led by Chakraborti, organized a rally in Dharmanagar.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha and State BJP President Rajib Bhattacharjee extended their congratulations to Jahar Chakraborti upon his candidacy for the by-election.

The necessity for the bypoll in the Dharmanagar Assembly constituency arose due to the passing of the sitting MLA and Assembly Speaker Biswa Bandhu Sen.

Sen, who was 72, died at a private hospital in Bengaluru on December 26, 2025, following a prolonged illness. He had been elected to the Tripura Assembly four times—twice as a Congress candidate in 2008 and 2013, and subsequently in 2018 and 2023 as a BJP nominee from the same constituency.

There are 46,143 eligible voters in the Dharmanagar Assembly by-election, including 23,763 women.

According to the election authorities' notification, the nomination filing process commenced on March 16, with the final submission date set for March 23. Nominations will be scrutinized on March 24, and the last day for withdrawal of candidacies is March 26. The counting of votes is scheduled for May 4.